The main message I wanted to hammer home was that although the Brazilian justice system has worked, it has worked painfully slowly.

Brazilian lawyers, echoing their Foreign Minister, stress this case is a matter for courts to decide – even though Brazil is a signatory to the Hague Convention, under which countries agree to return kidnapped children within six weeks.

They reiterate that courts have merely done their job in responding to the actions and appeals that have drawn the case out for more than a year. The problem, though, is when the wheels of justice grind as slowly as now, the path is perverted.